1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to surface cleaning, and, more particularly, to a multi-functional belt/blade cleaner for removing residual processing material, such as toner, ink, paper debris, and undesirable films from processing surfaces in photocopying machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the copying process in an electrophotographic copying (photocopying) machine, residual processing materials such as toner particles, paper debris, photoreceptor films, and ink, in the case of ink imaging systems, can accumulate on processing surfaces such as photoreceptor belts or drums, intermediate belts, ink imaging surfaces, and biased transfer surfaces. In ink imaging photocopiers, the liquid that carries the ink particles may dry onto imaging surfaces. The existence of such materials on photocopier processing surfaces can degrade image quality. Accordingly, a device for cleaning the adherent material from the processing surfaces is necessary to preserve the quality of the image.
Photocopying machines have typically used single cleaning blades in either a wiping mode or a doctoring mode to remove adherent material from photoreceptors. Due to excessive wear and insufficient reliability characteristics, however, such single-blade cleaning systems lack the durability desirable volume photocopying machines.
Alternatively, brush cleaning systems, some including a blower for detoning the brush with air, have been used to clean toner and other material from photoreceptors and biased transfer surfaces. However, such brush systems can be relatively expensive and, like the single-blade cleaning system, suffer from decreased effectiveness due to brush wear.